Rio Olympics: Would you live in the Athletes village?

The Rio Olympic Games 2016 is undoubtedly one of the biggest sporting events of this year and excitement over the medal tally will be the topmost on everyone’s minds.

The logistics behind housing more than 18,000 athletes and coaching staff from all over the world is no easy feat. According to Wikipedia, the Rio Olympic Villagehas a capacity for over 17,950 people with a total of 3,604 apartments and 31 buildings, and is one of the biggest Olympic Villages in the history of the Games.

Bird’s eye view of the Olympic Village (Source: Andre Motta/brazil2016)

Source: Andre Motta/brazil2016

These buildings are designed to be more than just a place to sleep for the athletes and their entourages. Facilities at the Village include convenient stores, banking and laundry facilities, a post office, beauty salon, gymnasiums and many more allows ‘villagers’ to relax, workout and access all their daily activities without leaving the site.

After the key handover ceremony, International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach highlighted that “This is one of the most beautiful Olympic villages I have seen in the history of the Games.”

IOC president settling in at the Olympic Village (Source: Ian Jones/IOC)

The living area (Source: Getty Images)

Bedroom (Source: Alex Ferro/Rio2016)

Bathrooms (Source: Alex Ferro/Rio2016)

Athletes can relax at the balconies of their units (Source: Alex Ferro/Rio2016)

However, it seems that not all is well as complaints regarding the amenities have been circulated online by journalists, coaches and even the athletes themselves. The problems ranged from blocked toilets, broken sinks, leaking walls, floods to having no electricity in the rooms.

A stress test was conducted on the plumbing system and toilets were flushed on multiple floors at the same time on July 25th to see if the building’s plumbingcould handle several athletes at once. Chef de Mission of the Australian Olympic Committee Kitty Chiller said that “Water came down the walls, there was a strong smell of gas in some apartments and there was ‘shorting’ in the electrical wiring.”

Comments about the Rio Village are all over social media platforms as the ‘villagers’ are voicing out their dissatisfaction. A popular hashtag #RioProblems have trended on Twitter. Irish Olympic photographer, Brendan Moran tweeted a picture with the caption “We may have no power but at least the wifi now works!”

Source: sportsfilebren (Twitter)

Olympian cyclist, Czech Zdenek Stybar posted a video and described the serious water leakage in a stairwell as a “new shower in the house”.

Source: NYDailyNews

Team China have also advised that duct tapes are one of the essential tools when you move into the Olympic Athlete Village. Photo below shows that athletes are using duct tape on their toilet seats, shower curtains and making DIY trash bags.

Source: XHSports (Twitter)

Famous athletes from all over the world ironically updated their social medias regarding the issue.

Source: andrewbogut (Twitter)

Source: StephenWadeAP(Twitter)

Source: Jeff_McTainsh (Twitter)

Source: XHSports (Twitter)

One of the biggest upset for the Rio Olympics was produced when Argentinian Tennis player, Juan Martin Del Potro found himself trapped in the athlete village elevator for 40 minutes with no contact at all with the outside world.

Source: jorgeviale (Twitter)

As though the problems in Rio isn’t enough yet, security has also became one of the main concerns of the villagers when Chef de Mission of the Australian Olympic Committee Kitty Chiller addressed that she caught burglars stealing from her team during a fire evacuation. “There is no CC-TV in the village.”, she said. Worries and questions were inevitable ever since.

Source: The Courier Mail

The accommodations are named as disasters and people are angered by the fact that they have to live in these situations until the end of the Olympics. However, there are also people who have commented that The Rio Athletes Village is better compared to some of the previous Villages in the past. Some claimed that issues were being resolved and things were already getting better. Finger-crossed for Rio and we’ll see whether further improvements will take place in the coming days.